Is lowering the drinking age a good idea? About 100 U.S. college presidents say the drinking age should be lowered to 18. In fact, they’re pushing lawmakers to do just that. And they expect it to reduce the number of kids drinking. Anything that would reduce alcohol addiction, abuse, and the need for alcohol rehab and detox would be good. But is lowering the drinking age really going to do that?

Someone commenting on the issue on the Miami Herald site explained that kids drink because they aren’t allowed to. If it was okay for them to do it, they’d be less interested, she said. She also said kids are expected to act out in rebellion and if the drinking age were lowered, they would have less reason to do that.

At the risk of alienating the kids I have to say that I think that’s bull. What is the rebellion all about exactly? That their parents have just shelled out $10,000 - or maybe $30,000 or $50, 000 - of their hard-earned dollars so their kids can get more education and have a better life? Are they rebelling against their parents discouraging destruction behavior that could cause their kids to become alcoholics who need months in alcohol rehab to have a normal life? And that’s after they’ve ruined at least some portion of whatever life they had.

No. Rebellion and forbidden fruit are not the reasons. The reason is that those kids do not have a strong sense of ethics - what’s good for them, and others, and what’s not.

Acting out is for four-year-olds who don’t understand why they can’t have more sugar. By college age, kids are capable of understanding things, and they’re capable of reason.  If they’re not, I’m not sure they have any business going off to college or anyplace else. There’s nothing more dangerous than an acting out, rebellious 4 year old given the privileges of an adult. They don’t understand life well enough to avoid the pitfalls.

If you have kids in college who are drinking, or taking drugs, get them into alcohol rehab so they can get straightened out.  And do it fast, before alcohol takes a toll on their life. Don’t buy the rebellion and forbidden fruit thing - while it may be true that preventing someone from having what they want can make them want it even more, when what they want is destructive giving it to them is not the answer. The answer is to give them an understanding of why it’s destructive. And if they’re already headed down the wrong road, get them into alcohol and drug addiction treatment center.

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A recent study, published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, surveyed the records of some, not all, U.S. poison control centers and found that over 9,000 children under 6 have been poisoned by prescription painkillers - most frequently those containing oxycodone and hydrocodone, i.e. Percocet, Lortab, and OxyContin. OxyContin addiction is a nationwide problem for those taking the drug after having obtained a prescription from their doctor and for those who get it illegally, and we know that the majority of teenagers getting in trouble with OxyContin get it from their parents, or someone else’s parents, medicine cabinets. But if nothing else motivates parents to really keep their drugs locked up, this statistic should do it.

In fact, the statistic is probably much higher as not all of the poison control centers were surveyed and, as with any other adverse event regarding drugs, there’s a good possibility that only 5 to 10 percent of the incidents were reported.

Parents with an OxyContin addiction are especially likely to have something like this happen. The drug is basically legal heroin and someone on OxyContin will not be particularly alert to a pill falling on the floor or being left out where kids can get them.

If you’re taking OxyContin and have small kids, or if you know of someone else who is, get them to a drug addiction treatment center. They’re already risking their own lives, don’t let them also risk the lives of their kids.

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I watched a medical show on television about a young man with a wife and two small children who was diabetic; injected insulin everyday. He also drank alcohol (which is high in sugar and should be avoided by diabetics) and he didn’t eat properly to keep his blood sugar in check. His wife found him dead one morning - he had overdosed on heroin and cocaine. There was no information on whether he had a heroin or cocaine addiction.

The medical examiner who did the autopsy was shocked to find that he didn’t die from the things one would expect from someone in his condition. She was also surprised that someone with a wife and children would be irresponsible enough to not take care of himself as a diabetic, and even more so that he would take heroin or cocaine. Addiction didn’t seem to be a problem yet - at least, not to heroin. He had spent the day at work and home until after dinner. If he’d had a heroin addiction he wouldn’t have been able to go without the drug all day.

Eventually, that’s where it would have ended up. He would be a diabetic with a cocaine addiction, or an addiction to heroin, and life for his wife and kids would have deteriorated severely someone managed to get him into a drug addiction treatment center for help. 

His wife had no idea about his drug use so she didn’t have the opportunity to get him into a drug addiction treatment center before it was too late. She’s now a widow with two small children to support as a single parent and raise without a husband and father.

It just goes to show you that it can happen to anyone - even someone who is apparently responsible in life, and to someone who has a drug problem, but it not yet an addict. 

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Although there aren’t many people with a cocaine addiction who would send themselves to cocaine rehab merely because they realized what kind of person profits from their habit, Helen Mirren was in the news today talking about how she quit using cocaine when she found out the money was supporting a Nazi war criminal.

Ms. Mirren is obviously not an addictive personality, unless she was using some other drug, because she said she used cocaine only occasionally when she was at parties. Hopefully, this statement won’t encourage people to try cocaine or other drugs with the idea that they, too, will only use them occasionally and won’t develop a cocaine addiction. Really, you never know whether you’re going to end up using it a lot and needing cocaine rehab, or taking another drug that you’ll need drug addiction treatment to quit. When people start using drugs, they’re not usually aware of the fact that addiction could happen.

One other factor one might take into consideration when looking at the possibility of using cocaine, or any other drug, is where the money is going. Most people with a social conscience would not support mass murderers, terrorists or others who are bent on the destruction of others. But that’s what drug dealers are. The person doesn’t have to also be a Nazi war criminal - their role in getting people addicted to drugs is quite enough.

If you know of someone who has a problem with cocaine addiction, or a problem with any other drug, get them into a drug addiction treatment center. It will not only save their lives, it will help cut the supply of drug dealers who are murdering people every day. 

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The combination of high poverty and unemployment rates, jobs that lead to chronic pain and other health problems, and being hit more directly than any other region in the U.S. by the unethical marketing of Purdue Pharma has left Appalachian area with more than its fair share of physical and emotional pain and OxyContin addiction. 

The region is desperate for help. Where is Purdue Pharma? Where is the company whose misleading marketing and advertising, false claims and outright lies helped cause the OxyContin addiction problem? $634 million dollars came out of that company, and yet there are Appalachian states in a what is basically a competition to receive a piece of a $240,000 grant that will help only a handful of people.

Appalachian mines provide more than a third of the nation’s coal, and their electrical utilities provides 15% of the nation’s electrical output. It is rich in natural resources that could be harnessed to help solve very serious energy problems in the U.S. And yet it is crippled by OxyContin addiction, and many other drugs are right on its heels.

While it’s true we can’t blame Purdue Pharma for all the areas problems, it’s also true that if the company had not marketed a very addictive drug so heavily, lying about it all the while, the region would have nowhere near the OxyContin addiction or all of the problems that go with it. Are they ever going to pay for it? Will they ever really be held accountable? 10% of the U.S. population is in prison for crimes far less destructive than Purdue’s, but none of the principals or employees are in prison.

OxyContin rehab can help solve some of these problems. No one is in a position to change their lives while they’re addicted to drugs. Find a drug addiction treatment center that can help you out.

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I read an article today about hackers - in this case, hackers who get into computers and steal personal data. The article had nothing whatever to do with drugs, but I was surprised to find that one of the major industries being attacked by hackers is health care. They are stealing personal information so they can sell it to people who want free medical care and prescription drugs. We’re not talking about heart medication or some other life-saving drug, we’re talking about the painkillers, tranquilizers, sedatives and other drugs that are part and parcel of the current prescription drug addiction epidemic.

Of course I’m aware of doctor shopping, theft of drug stores, crooked doctors who sell prescriptions in the alley behind their home or office, medical  workers who steal from the hospitals and other facilities where they work, online pharmacies that give drugs to just about anyone - all the ways people get drugs they can’t just get through normal channels. But I was not aware that computer hackers were also behind prescription drug addiction.

Amazing what happens where there’s money. You can see why some people see it as the root of all evil. It definitely motivates people to do some pretty destructive things.

But money is really what the prescription drug addiction epidemic is all about. That, and turning us into a nation of pliable zombies. Don’t fall for the ads on TV saying drugs will change your life for the better. Don’t be enticed by the easy way out of life’s problems. Face up to whatever has to be faced up to, do something to change your circumstances, and if you or someone you care about already has a problem with prescription drug addiction and is already dependent on those drugs, get them into a drug addiction treatment center for help.

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It is fairly well known by those who are paying attention that prescription drug addiction is a real problem in Florida. Hernando Today, a Florida newspaper, recently published an article by Kyle Martin all about it. The article - which begins with the sentence “We live in a zombie nation“ - is spot on. Prescription drug addiction is producing a nation of zombies.  People who walk, talk, go to work every day and seem pretty normal but, as Martin said, their minds are clouded and their body is numb. And they probably couldn’t stop taking the drugs without drug rehab. Florida, fortunately, has plenty of them. And many are seeing as many or more people coming for help with prescription drug addiction than are coming for a problem with street drugs.

Martin also tells the story of a person who is now a drug counselor getting addicted to opiates. He started with methadone, prescribed for him for pain following a traffic accident, built up a tolerance to the drug and needed more and more of it to control the pain. Eventually it doesn’t control the pain any more - in fact, recent research shows that prolonged use of painkillers actually causes pain - but you’re hooked on the drug and can’t get off it.

There are millions of people in this position. Not necessarily on methadone, they could be on OxyContin, hydrocodone, Percocet, Vicodin - opiate painkillers that are basically legal heroin. Most of these people may also still be functioning in life right now but, if they don’t get into a drug addiction treatment center to get off them, that won’t last.

Prescription drug addiction sneaks up on you. While it’s doubful that many people who try heroin, for example, think they’re going to get addicted when they start, they at least know it’s a possibility. With OxyContin and other prescription painkillers, it’s really not expected. Several surveys have shown that people think those drugs are safe because they came from a doctor.

Well, they couldn’t be more wrong. And they couldn’t be in more danger.

A drug addiction treatment center can get someone off those drugs. But it’s a good idea to go to one with experience in dealing with them. And with a good success rate - i.e people complete the program AND they don’t relapse. Call Drug Rehab Referral if you’re looking for something like that.

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Here’s a typical story of prescription drug addiction. This guy started on painkillers for a sports injury and 10 years later finally got some help from a drug addiction treatment center. He says he doesn’t know what happened. He just became addicted.

That’s not unusual. First of all, he got the painkillers from his doctor. Drugs from doctors aren’t supposed to be dangerous. Right? Nor are you supposed to turn into what is basically a heroin addict.

The article mentions a survey done in 2002 - and the situation has become much worse since then - that showed that 30 million Americans had illegally used prescription painkillers. Of course, not all of them became addicted and not all need a drug addiction treatment center but even if it was only 10%, we’d have an almost insurmountable problem in terms of the number of people we have facilities to treat.

The director of the local Drug Task Force blames it on the fact that the drugs aren’t illegal to possess and thousands of households (obviously it’s more than thousands) have them right in their medicine cabinet. While that is definitely a factor, I don’t think it’s getting down to the basic.

Finding the real source of the problem would lie more in the answer to questions like “Why do so many people have them in their medicine cabinets?” “What’s wrong with our health care system that so many people are in pain?” “Why are so many people prone to drug use, drug abuse, and prescription drug addiction?”

Realistically, there are only so many drug addiction treatment centers around. And it usually takes  several months to get someone through a program successfully - i.e. they’re actually rehabilitated and aren’t going to go back on drugs. And there are millions of people who need help.

We can help family members and friends, but until we get the answers to some of those questions and start addressing them effectively as a society, we’re not going to really resolve the problem of drug abuse - including prescription drug addiction.

If every person who knew someone with an alcohol or drug problem made sure that person got into treatment - a good drug addiction treatment center that really got the job done, not just a little detox and they’re out of there back on drugs or alcohol in no time - we’d make a serious dent in the problem.

Who will take this step?

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A lot of people think that taking a drug just once won’t kill them. Kevin Stoll, who died when he shot up heroin apparently for the first time, proves otherwise. Kevin has completed a drug addiction treatment program but then relapsed. He took cocaine, and a 1/2 hour later took heroin, and died..

What went wrong? While it’s obviously hard to say exactly, chances are that something that needed to be addressed while he was in the drug addiction treatment center fell through the cracks.

Kevin’s problems started long ago. He was about 12 or 13 when he started drinking. Something was up with him even at that age. Did the treatment he received find out what it was, really? 

If someone you care about is in trouble with alcohol or drugs, make sure you send them to an alcohol and drug addiction treatment center that has a good success rate when it comes to relapse.  And make sure you get them there as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for them to quit.

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I’ve written several blogs about how difficult it can be to get off methadone. A drug addiction treatment center that gets someone off heroin or other opiates is almost always preferable – it gets the person off the original drug without getting them hooked on another. The methadone is an added, usually unnecessary, step and it can be more difficult to stop taking than the heroin or opiate they started with.

Case in point - Tara Tovey started with an OxyContin addiction. Her doctor put her on methadone treatment. She started at 140 mg/day and stayed at that dose for 6 months. She then worked with her doctor to gradually decrease the dosage - she only dropped it by 2.5 mg every two weeks, and even that would sometimes be so devastating she’d wind up spending a whole week sick in bed.
 
She’s been tapering off for nearly one year and should be completely off it in September – one and a half years after she started her drug addiction treatment program. Tara is 19 years old.

Most people who go onto methadone treatment are parked on the drug for years without any further attempts at a real drug addiction treatment program that will get them off it.
This story demonstrates how easy is it to develop an OxyContin addiction, and how difficult it can be to get off methadone. In the beginning she tapered the dose by less than 2% every two weeks and still suffered.

With all due respect for Tara and her doctor’s persistence and hard work, I have to say if they had been able to find a good drug addiction treatment center, they would have been able to get her off the Oxy without methadone. It still would have taken several months for full rehab, but she wouldn’t have had to go through the agony of methadone withdrawal. I would advise anyone who has a heroin or OxyContin addiction to explore that avenue first.
 
Nevertheless, the most important thing is that her doctor cared enough to get her through it and not park her on the drug. And Tara persisted. Hats off to both of them.

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